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Who here has actually bought/will actually buy a Roadster?

Who here has actually bought/will actually buy a Roadster? More than 100 of them have been sold already, and there's a fair chance at least one person on this forum bought one/ is actually rich enough to buy one. I haven't, and unless I randomly become rich I doubt I will. However, I am hoping for future electrics more in my price range, maybe the Tesla White Star, a car from Phoenix Motors (The phaeton looks beautiful!), a car from Universal Electric Vehicle, or maybe if Feel Good Cars does something with the EEstor I'll buy that.

It's more money than I ever planned to spend on a car. Then again, I could swing it -- and the Roadster is more car than I ever contemplated getting for the money. (It's practically a bargain when compared to many of the competing exotic sports cars.)

The other obstacle for me is that I live in Texas, and the idea of paying $8,000 for the privilege of not having a service center within driving distance doesn't sit well with me. Texas is a great market area for sports cars -- I've heard anecdotaly that we've got lots of Lotus drivers here, possibly more than anywhere in the USA outside of California and Florida. Unfortunately, the state is large and geographically dispersed so it would take at least three service centers to cover it.

When the day comes that there's a Tesla dealership in Austin or Dallas where I can get behind the wheel and try one out, that's probably the moment when I won't be able to resist any longer.

I'm trying to play it cool now and wait to see how things go. If all goes well, I'm hopeful that Tesla will bring their business to Texas in 2008. Until then, I do have my Lotus Esprit V8 to zoom around in. It's not bad -- it can pass just about anything on the highway, except a gas station. 8)

Who here has actually bought/will actually buy a Roadster? More than 100 of them have been sold already, and there's a fair chance at least one person on this forum bought one/ is actually rich enough to buy one.

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That's a really good question.

In the Tesla Motors Blog, one of the early ones, a retired husband and wife who were teachers posted that they cashed in their retirement in order to get on the list for one of the first 100 Tesla Roadsters. They felt that spending 100 thousand dollars was something they could do to help the future of the planet.

I'm not quite there like they are, but I will spend $50,000 for the Model 2.

It makes even more sense thinking how much money you save over a period of 5-7 years on gasoline. I believe solar power will become much more common in the near future, especially thinking of nanosolar's new thin film panels which they claim are 1/10th of the price of current panels using high grade silicon.

So you will be able to have (almost) free electricity for both your home and your car.

Doing some rough calculations, I currently get about 12.5km/liter from my car. 1l=1.3€
Driving about 16 000km/year that's 1280 liters of gasoline=1664€ * 6 years=9984€.
Add to that the savings on motor oil, oil change, air filters, oil filters, spark plugs, belts and tens of other things that need service in an IC engine, and the garage fees.....

One of the problems right now is that no matter how you slice it, battery replacement and initial costs currently make EVs far more expensive than gas cars, even with $3/gallon gas. However, plenty of fringe technologies are aiming to solve this problem, and I know of one that is actually on the market today. Once we get rid of the battery replacement problem, even a 40k dollar electric will be more economical in the long run than the average 20k gas car, because of the longer lifetime of the engine, the lower maintenance costs, and the lower fuel costs.

The one that is on the market today is AltairNano's nano-lithium battery. Its been tested to 9000 cycles, can charge in one minute (limited by the power source), and can operate in a much wider range of temperatures than other batteries. Phoenix Motor Cars has already made an order of these batteries. If even half of 9000 cycles is true, that translates into a 540,000 mile battery life (with Phoenix's 120 mile range car).

One of the problems right now is that no matter how you slice it, battery replacement and initial costs currently make EVs far more expensive than gas cars, even with $3/gallon gas.

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That depends on what you compare it to. The Tesla Roadster looks like it could be a bargain compared with other exotic sports cars in the same performance category. When you factor its initial cost, plus fuel savings (other sports cars require premium gasoline and plenty of it), and much reduced maintenance costs. . . It's a niche were the electric car can be competitive. As the technology improves, more such niches will gradually open up.

The other factor is mass production. The cost of making it could be reduced a lot if they produced, say, 100,000 of them instead of 1000 or 2000 per year. That's the real difference between a Lotus Elise and a Mazda Miata. (Plus I've heard Lotus make an obscene profit on each Elise sold.) Before GM give any new car a green light for production, their typical question is, "Can we sell 100,000 of these?"

Tesla have said the Roadster's Li-ion cells at today's prices cost about $20,000. However, they reckon by the time any of them need to be replaced -- about 2012 or so -- the price of a full replacement should have dropped to about $12,000. That's unless there's been a breakthrough and we're ready to replace the whole ESU with superultramegacapacitors by then.

I am also on the pre-order list (#76). Although to be entirely accurate, this isn't an order. It is just a reservation placeholder since it is cancellable up to the day of delivery. I'll need to drive it to really see how I fit (since I am 6'3") before 100% committing. I've been a passenger but that isn't the same.

Assuming we go through with it, we will be ordering red (wife's choice).

I received confirmation today, I'm officially in line for a roadster. I'm going for the hard top, satellite radio and premium speakers, and Very Orange. Estimated delivery is April 2008.

Sometime during the coming year I'll be selling the Esprit V8 to make room for it. (And yes, the Esprit is still in the body shop, but the hard part of the work is done on it. All the broken up fiberglass panels have been rebuilt. Carlos is a genius with fiberglass.)

I was very fortunate this year, I signed a gas drilling lease which will more than pay for the Roadster even if they don't strike gas. If the drillers bring in a well, then it will only get better.

NICE!!! I wish you all the best with your purchase and ownership. I'm planning on heading up there for a test drive with my father in the coming months. Are you as well and have you heard when they will have a car to test drive. Maybe we'll go at a similar time and we can meet for a chat.
Greenspeed

I haven't yet received any information about test-drive opportunities. I may not have any good opportunity to do that, due to the distances involved, and because I have a family member here who needs some looking after.

#587, though I understand that may be adjusted a bit. Hoping to move up about 10 spots, but we'll see.

By the time mine is delivered, it should have all the kinks worked out, 1.5 drivetrain, improved seats, new JVC stereo/nav system. Tesla confirmed it will still be a 2008 model.

Looks like it will arrive just in time for the spring/summer 2009 convertible driving season. The beach is only 150 miles away, so it's easily in range. I'll just have to find someplace to recharge before driving back home. I know a few people with beach houses, so that should be doable.

I starting planning solar panels last year, but I'm still working on it. I have a huge south facing roof area, but there aren't a lot of incentives here, so it's a little tricky to work out a good deal.